- Pterocles exustus
Identification
31–33 cm (12¼-13 in)
- Buffy beige overall plumage
- Unmarked head
- Heavily mottle upperparts
- Dark underwing
- Dark chestnut-brown belly
- Barred, elongated central tail feathers
Distribution
Central and northern Africa and southern Asia.
Northern Africa: occurs only in Egypt
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea
Eastern Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania
Middle East: Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran
Asia: Pakistan, India and Bangladesh
Introduced on the Island of Hawaii, and persistent in the thoroughly ranched area between the town of Waimea, the west slope of Mauna Kea and Hualalai.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Clements recognises the following subspecies [1]:
- P. e. exustus: Mauritania and Senegambia and east to Sudan
- P. e. floweri: Egypt - thought extinct but recently rediscovered
- P. e. ellioti: South-eastern Sudan to Eritrea, northern Ethiopia and Somalia
- P. e. olivascens: Southern Ethiopia to Somalia, Kenya and northern Tanzania
- P. e. erlangeri: Western and southern Arabian Peninsula
- P. e. hindustan: South-eastern Iran to Pakistan and India
Habitat
Arid semi-desert, usually with thorny scrub and trees.
Behaviour
Diet
Their diet consists mostly of small hard seeds, with the probable addition of shoots and insects occasionally.
Breeding
The clutch usually contains 3 eggs which are laid into a ground scape, which may or may not be lined. Incubation takes 22-23 days, the male sitting overnight.
Gallery
Click images to see larger version
Juvenile
Photo © by Shantilal Varu
Kutch, Gujarat, India, June 2016
Parent & Chick
Photo © by Alok Tewari
Gurgaon, India, May 2014
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved June 2016)
- de Juana, E. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse (Pterocles exustus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.chbsan.01
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Chestnut-bellied_Sandgrouse
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
